


First Steps

by LilyThistle



Category: Gentleman Jack (TV)
Genre: Diary/Journal, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-09 15:43:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18920041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyThistle/pseuds/LilyThistle
Summary: A young Anne Lister is coming to terms with her attraction to women and is discovering her talent for seduction.





	First Steps

**Author's Note:**

> An anon on Tumblr suggested I should write this story. I tried writing it in the style of diary entries (I hope it works). There will be six short chapters.

What dreadful weather! Having to stay indoors for days on end! Every evening I promise Samuel that we will take the horses out in the morning and every dawn I must disappoint him. We are both getting more restless as the days pass.

Aunt served us cake for breakfast this morning. It was an unusual thing to do, but she is trying ever so hard to keep our spirits up. Uncle we haven’t seen in days. He keeps the door to his study locked and I know he is just as unhappy about the weather as the rest of us are.

There is nothing more to do here than read all day. I’ve been reading a lot by the Greeks and pondering on their lives. Imagine knowing how to appease the Gods with a sacrifice so they will change the weather. I told Samuel about it and he suggested we should give it a try … needless to say I wasn’t so keen on the idea.

Samuel suffers more than me. He doesn’t know what to do with himself when he cannot be outside, running through a field or wading through a brook. I’m the same, but I can rely on my books and my diary still. Aunt is doing her best to keep us content, but everything she thinks of displeases Samuel. I would also be relieved if she stopped, but I am grateful to her for trying.

This afternoon, the rain subsided for a couple of hours and I thought we could go out for a quick walk at last, but Aunt forbade it because she feared we would spoil our boots with mud. Samuel threw a fit and locked himself in his room until Aunt suggested we should go and visit the neighbours. We took the carriage there and when we arrived the wheels were dark brown and crusted with mud. It had started to teem down again, and Mrs Maynard was in quite a shock to see us on her doorstep, poor woman. I cannot blame her for not expecting any visitors in this weather. And we weren’t the best company she was inviting into her house. Samuel was still cross with Aunt and I have to admit I would have rather spent time with my books than with Colonel and Mrs Maynard. His opinions on the War are some of the most uninformed I have ever heard, and he thinks just because his oldest son is stationed in Dover and can see the Enemy on a sunny day he knows everything there is to know about Napoleon.

When Mrs Maynard had led us into the drawing room we discovered that she already had company.  Aunt was embarrassed and apologised exceedingly, but Mrs Maynard did not seem to mind us being there. “The more the merrier,” she kept saying, while her dull husband chuckled into his moustache. Mrs Maynard introduced us to the visitor, a Miss Harriet Foster of Hammersmith in London, Colonel Maynard’s niece who is visiting for the summer. She was wearing a dark green dress which went rather well with her black curls and light skin. I noticed Samuel staring at her the whole time we were there, and I found myself being drawn to her as well. A single curl kept falling into her eyes and she always swiped it back behind her ear with great persistence, but every time she turned her head or took a sip from her teacup it fell forward again. We were seated next to each other, so I decided to reach out and tuck it behind her ear myself. She thanked me, and I must have done a good job because this was the end of that curl.

Aunt talked to Mrs Maynard the whole afternoon and Samuel asked the Colonel about his son – he still insists on joining the military – so I was stuck with Miss Foster. She proved to be delightful company, which surprised me because she hadn’t talked much the first half hour or so we were there. We talked in great detail about London. Oh, how I miss it! I can’t wait to travel again. Halifax is boring me so. When I told Miss Foster this, she laughed at me. “What could be better than a quaint life in the country?” she asked, to which I replied I much preferred the excitements of the big city. Then she made me promise I would show her around my Uncle’s estate and the lands. We soon turned to the subject of books and I recommended her some of my favourites. She excused herself to go to her room and lend me one of her favourites. We spent the remainder of the afternoon discussing a book we had both read.

Mrs Maynard invited us to stay for dinner, but Aunt did not want to impose, so when it was getting dark, we took a carriage back to Shibden. I promised Miss Foster to call on her as soon as the weather would permit it.

The evening paled in comparison to the afternoon. I tried to make polite conversation during supper, but my mind was preoccupied with the afternoon’s events. I wished for the same witty conversation, but I can never expect Samuel to be my intellectual equal, no matter how much I love him. Aunt was recounting the stories she had heard from Mrs Maynard. I overheard that the Farnhams will be moving to Sussex this spring. They are selling their land and estate. I am not saddened to see them leave.

***

I did not sleep well. I was kept awake by a fox outside my window, screaming his lungs out all night. I wish I could have fallen asleep because then I might have dreamt of Miss Foster. I long to touch her delicate hands again. We spent just one afternoon together and already I am entirely smitten with her. I hope we will get to know each other more intimately over the course of the summer. It remains to be seen if she had the same … inclination as me. This is something I can find out easily. As soon as the weather brightens, I will call on her and see, if we can become … good friends.

 


End file.
